I only had three regular days working in the library this week, and enjoyed two days of excursions in the Czech Republic with a lovely Italian woman I am very lucky to have met (but we will get into that in another post). My work in the library was pretty basic to what I am becoming used to as a regular schedule. Three conversation classes, the introduction of a new project, working on current projects, and working to stay caught up with all of them.
Monday I had two of my conversation classes and was introduced to a new project, as the library becomes more focused on the understanding of library use. After meeting with a new colleague, Martin, to plan our approach to the library use project, I spent most of the time working on brainstorming ideas for the long-term reference project I have been assigned. I then enjoyed 2 hours of conversation with students. In my first class, only one of my students showed up (one was sick and the other busy), and he has assured me that he is going to confront his fellow conversation partners to at least let me know when they cannot make it. My second conversation class was our first meeting, and I spent most of the time talking, which reminded me I need to be more mindful about trying to get my students to converse, so it actually helps them.
Tuesday introduced me to the “mini training” I will receive while here and my final conversation class of the week. On top of this, I worked more on the CRM project and did some historical reading on the First Republic of Czechoslovakia. The mini training is meant to give the group a fuller understanding of academic libraries worldwide (as many of the people working in services here are not librarians), but it turned into a long conversation about how scary the U.S. education system truly is when it comes to university. This topic seemed to continue in my conversation class, where they decided to talk about their experiences in European higher education and I couldn’t keep the look of awe of my face about how affordable it is, even when they think it is expensive. Keep in mind, I was having a conversation with three scientific doctors that have an education I cannot even begin to wrap my head around. My work on the CRM project seems to have hit a wall too, but I am diligently working on it. I appreciate the clout that is apparently being put behind my opinion, but it could prove problematic because there are people here that just understand things way more than I will ever be able to in my short time here.
Wednesday and Thursday I moved some meetings around and went on cultural excursions in the Czech Republic. I went with a guest of my mentor, an Italian-American woman who just retired to Italy after spending the last twenty years in New York City. On Wednesday, we went to the Prague Zoo. On Thursday, my mentor took us to Karlstejn, a fourteenth century castle just outside of Prague. Both excursions were extremely eye opening for different reasons I will explain in more detail in a later post.
Two days out of the office means a Friday of catching up. While my excursions Wednesday and Thursday are important for my understanding of things here and the culture around me, it does not mean that my work stopped in the library. While I have caught up mostly with readings (for now), I needed to make sure I was on solid footing in other arenas, like my projects and some of the assignments for other things going on in the library. Wednesday morning, before we left for the zoo, I spent time reading on the historical protester Jan Palach and informing myself about some Czech government issues taking place right now. Friday, I made sure that those things made sense in the notes I had taken and organized myself to be able to hit the ground running next week. Talking with colleagues, catching up on some work, and looking into some future activities took up the majority of my day as I prepare for a weekend with colleagues and more exploration.
Raven K 